New Delhi: Private snooping agents may be
used to carry out special checks on violation of Intellectual
Property Rights on official trademarks and brand merchandise
of the Commonwealth Games next year to avoid monetary loss to
the tune of crores of rupees.
The organising committee of the games has explored the
possibility with the private detectives association.
The spies will garner information from around the
national capital region where small industrial units and
individuals are said to indulge in manufacturing of duplicate
and fake logos, symbols, sporting gear, apparels and other
goods bearing official holograms and symbols.
"Violation of trademark and proprietary insignia dents
the monetary interests of the official partners and business
houses who put in huge sums of money to obtain sponsorship
rights of such events," Chairman of the Association of Private
Detectives and Investigators Kunwar Vikram Singh said.
"The brand protection cell of the organising committee
of Commonwealth Games has spoken to us about the issue. We
assured them that our professional snoopers can check the
duplication and faking of official trademark and logos
efficiently," he said.
The detectives, after deploying techniques of
detection, identification, curtailment and prevention take
help of the police to conduct searches at unauthorised
premises resulting into arrests and seizures.
Singh, who also heads the Central Association of
Private Security Industry, said the trademark violation is an
area of concern for the organisers of such huge events.
"A delegation of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014
had even come down here and inquired about the IPR violations
and their remedial measures," Singh said.
The Organising Committee (OC) of the CWG, in a public
notice issued earlier had said, "it has recently come to our
notice that some organisations/persons who are not authorised
are using these marks (official CWG logos) in respect of their
products and services. These unscrupulous organisations and
persons are thus cashing in on the goodwill and reputation of
OC of CWG Delhi 2010 besides diluting the brand equity
attached to these marks.
Any person indulging in unlawful use of the mentioned
marks and any unscrupulous organisation/person who fails to
desist from using the trademarks... and continues to conduct
business... will be dealt with...," it added.
According to experts, money spinning events like the
CWG are prone to such intellectual data theft as the
activities are spread over countries and fetch revenues worth
crores.
Fake bags, stationery, replicas and even merchandise
are flooded in the markets before the start and during the
games, they said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, November 22, 2009, 16:02